31 years on: Justice continues to elude victims of Sopore bloodbath
Islamabad: Justice continues to elude the victims of a massacre carried out by Indian troops in Sopore town of Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir despite the passage of over three decades.
A report released by Kashmir Media Service, today, on the completion of thirty one years to the carnage said that over 60 Kashmiri civilians were mercilessly killed and more than 400 shops and residential houses torched by the troops of Indian Border Security Force in Sopore town on this day in 1993. It said the Sopore mass killing is a bare proof of the worst Indian state terrorism in occupied Kashmir.
The report said, this is one of the few massacres that have been mentioned in TIME Magazine. The news report appeared on Jan 18, 1993 in TIME Magazine under the headline, “Blood tide rising: Indian forces carry out one of the worst massacres in Kashmir’s history”. The magazine described the massacre as: “Perhaps there is a special corner in hell reserved for troopers who fire their weapons indiscriminately into a crowd of unarmed civilians in the Kashmiri town of Sopore.”
The KMS report said that the UK-based human rights watchdog Amnesty International in its report had expressed deep concern over the extra-judicial killings of people at Sopore by Indian paramilitary force and at the inadequacy of the Indian government’s response to effectively investigate the killings. The organization was concerned that the investigation lacked independence required for a fully effective and impartial investigation.
The report said the Kashmiris continue to suffer Sopore-like tragedies because of India’s illegal occupation of Jammu and Kashmir. It said the history of occupied Kashmir is replete with such tragic incidents as Indian troops have committed over two dozen massacres in the territory. It said these bloodbaths have exposed true face of so-called Indian democracy.
The report pointed out that India wants to intimidate the Kashmiris by carrying out mass killings but such tactics cannot deter them from carrying on their freedom struggle. It deplored that despite the passage of over three decades, the victims are awaiting justice while the perpetrators of heinous crime roaming free. It said that the international human rights bodies must probe massacres by Indian troops in IIOJK and the world community must come forward to stop the genocide of Kashmiri people by India.
